Originally, this drawing started as a way to relax, but it grew into something far more ambitious: a second attempt at that group shot picture, though not in the same way and not with the same lineup.
Here we see four Lucids. From left to right: Mike Anacle, Wendy Krane, Sakura Miyazaki, and Ken "Thunder". Not exactly the most exciting poses, but they just the job done. You may also notice some changes among each one, too.
Of all of these characters, Ken is the one who has changed the least throughout development. He still wears his green armor with gold trim. Long ago, I did draw him with extra lightning bolts on his shoulder plates and shin guards, but I felt like that was going a bit overboard. Otherwise, the most drastic changes might be his "antennae" growing or shrinking, and his eyes going from straight red to slightly more orange (which may tie into his color scheme a bit more).
Sakura has gone through quite a few redesigns with her costume, but for a while, I was mostly happy with the look I developed for her, with the red top and pink skirt. Here, I darkened her shoulder pads to match her hair to cut down on the colors used (I enjoy color a lot, but too many of them on one character can blur the design in weird ways). You might also notice I changed her shoes to big boots. I debated for a long time over whether to give Sakura standard girl shoes or something else. I think Sakura will end up with these "moon boots", though I think they will be something she decides to craft later in the story, rather than starting with them.
Wendy has not changed much designwise: still the cyan coat with white trim while having pale skin, all meant to embody her wind-based talents. You can also see her fans in an open view now (I previously showed them closed). I did, however, change the trim of her coat a bit. Last time, I modeled her coat after the ones the military personnel in the Japanese cartoon Fullmetal Alchemist wear, and I did not want to infringe on any copyrights. I do wonder if I should change her skin tone, though.
Mike Anacle, while I did upload an old image of him in the very first drawing on this blog, is a character I have not drawn in a long time. He is a short guy, a few years younger than the other three I have on here, but he knows his way around machines. Both his weapon and his main idea are his backpack, which houses two mechanical arms and various other tools. While he can build things, and even Ken and Wendy consult him for the construction of new gadgets, Mike does not have much of a mind for combat or strategy. Though Sakura is older than Mike, the two of them attend classes together at Subcon Academy while becoming full-fledged Lucids.
Even though it has been so long since I drew Mike, his basic concept is still the same: a short guy aided by mechanical arms. His Lucid form is not much different than his usual form, other than the fully-functional mechanical arms. I did attach two sensors to his head to send accurate signals to his arms. As for a character color, I intended Mike to be "silver" to reflect his machines. However, I ended up making much of his backpack rusty orange in this picture, so now I am not sure whether to make his signature color brown / orange or silver.
Speaking of color, you might also notice the colors seem more drab than they usually are. I did use my usual palette, but I also switched those hues to ones which Photoshop more printer-friendly. I have noticed how Sakura's red dress appears more orange-red than the "pure red light" I see on the computer, so I wanted to see how the printed version would look if I used a different shade. Then, I decided to theme the whole picture on printer-friendly colors, which also explains why Wendy's coat appears darker than usual.
Finally, I want to mention the logo here. This will probably not be the final logo, but I wanted to experiment. The only trait I know for sure is how I want to replace the C with a crescent moon, indicative both of Sakura's role in the proceedings and the Dream Dimension. The former is also why I made the C different colors than the rest of the letters, decked out in the colors of Subcon Academy. I wanted to make the other letters gold with a blue border (like the logo for Pokemon), but this version popped out from this background better.
I hope you guys like this picture, and if you have comments or suggestions, please let me know. I would like to whip up another (less ambitious) drawing in the next couple of days, but I do not know if I will have the time before PAX East. Either way, my next post will probably talk about PAX East before I go there.
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